Mazomanie Sand Barrens

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Prescribed Burn

A description of the Mazomanie Oak Barrens from the DNR website:

“Situated on a broad and gently undulating sand terrace along the Wisconsin River, Mazomanie Oak Barrens features a significant oak barren remnant containing large scattered black oaks with bur oak, black cherry, and small amounts of white oak. Groves of smaller oaks occur amid sand prairie openings with species such as big and little blue-stem, bronze-headed oval sedge, goat’s-rue, Carolina puccoon, June grass, clammy ground-cherry, rough blazing-star, prairie coreopsis, few-leaved sunflower, and spiderwort. There are patches of oak woodland with white and black oaks and a shrub layer composed of American hazelnut and huckleberry. The barrens supports the state-threatened cream gentian and the rare prairie fame-flower. A wet prairie dominated by prairie cord grass is also present. Mazomanie Oak Barrens is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1991.”

Crew Members

We drove past this area Sunday afternoon and noticed a long streak of hazy gray smoke hovering in the air near the Wisconsin River. When we went to explore, we found two members of the crew in charge of doing a prescribed burn. One crew member would shoot a stream of propellent into the scrub and flames would quickly erupt. Shortly after, the second crew member would come and put the fire out. Very controlled, very effective.

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